a month in france/La Garangeoire/Al Fresco Holidays.....

[ifyouresaggyandyouknowit]

Planning on making the most of dcs not yet being at school and heading to France in June next year for a month for a budget-ish type holiday. We're planning on hiring caravans on sites and thinking about Vendee or surrounding areas.

Wondered if anyone had any recommendations. I was looking into La Garangeoire, and thinking of spending 2 weeks there then kind of wanted a cheaper week either side. Any suggestions?

With La Garangeoire Al Fresco holidays seems to be much cheaper than canvas/keycamp etc. Is there a reason for this?

I'm not stuck on Vendee so any other ideas very welcome. We have young dcs 1 and 3 and aren't really interested in evening entertainment or clubs.

We found Al fresco to be very good, and went with them when Siblu (cheaper) or Matthews (cheaper still!) were not on the sites we wanted.

For very young children we loved La Carabasse - a Siblu site. The vans were in circles so no cars whizzing past, and we had good sized plots. Pools were good but you have to drive to the beach. The Charente region is not much firther than the Vendee but is warmer. La Palmyre zoo was good (long time ago though).

If you are on a budget then do consider Matthews. The reps are non existent but the vans were fine. Smallest van is TINY but beats a tent, and their large van is great (we had teens so needed space). Their site at Bretinolles has an indoor pool with slides as well as outdoor - and it is right on the beach. Small site and mainly French/Dutch guests, but the park at the top of the road is brilliant for little kids - you self propel on all the rides :) Tripadvisor review are still all good.

Le Garangeoire - is a lovely site.
There were a lot of English people (we were touring in our own caravan) who had been going there years.

It is a lovely site for children, and there was a large lake for my husband. When we visited a few years ago, it was a Le Castels site, which has some high class French sites.

The only down side was it was in the countryside and I love the sea.

wow! That is a blast from the past. We stayed at La Garangeoire about 30 years ago when I was a kid!! It was a great holiday, happy memories. I imagine it may have changed a bit since then but still... We enjoyed the lake and camping at the site very much.

la garangeoire is possibly the best site we've stayed on in around 12 years of doing the canvas/keycamp type holidays. However, we found this area of vendee a bit dull. much preferred brittany and weather in south brittany is usually ok - so if we did this again, we'd do south brittany.

canvas holidays and thompson had the best pitches from what i remember. our canvas pitch (with very large van) was one of the best we've ever had. massive and quiet.

rock group were brilliant.